


last

by downmoon



Series: a lifetime [12]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 11:15:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16157891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downmoon/pseuds/downmoon
Summary: the beginning of the end





	last

**Author's Note:**

> we're drawing to a close, folks! should be one more long addition to this series before it's wrapped up!

There’s an acrid cloud of smoke in the air the closer they draw to the Castle. Sheik has taken to wrapping a shred of white cloth around his mouth and nose to help with the coughing, Link the same with a hood he’d found tucked away in his pack. It distills the smoke they’re inhaling, but it does nothing to mask the scent of burning. Link’s stomach twists every time his mind ventures to wonder at the source of the fire, what could produce such an awful smell. 

The horses are on edge, too, pulling on their reins, reluctant to step forward. Rosie is hardly ever spooked, and yet, Sheik’s nearly fallen from the saddle twice now because of her movements. Link has considered dismounting more than once, letting the horses roam free, allowing him and Sheik slip towards the Castle as quickly as they can. But he worries about the open space. There’s still a fair distance between themselves and any cover, and with the Guardians roaming the fields, a quick route of escape would very likely save their lives. 

Link’s horse halts, grunting and pulling on the reins. “Come on,” Link tries softly, trying to ease the horse forward. The horse only moves a few steps back, bucking and whinnying. 

Rosie stops on her hesitant path forward. Sheik looks back towards Link and his stubborn horse. “Might as well take a break,” Link calls. He dismounts as soon as his horse stills enough that he can slip off his saddle, but the moment his boot meets the earth, reins still in hand, something looms up behind him. 

Time moves as a hazy river. As the Guardian rises upon the crest he had just breached, Link watches the machine, motionless. His heartbeat pounds in his ears and his feet are rooted to the ground, like he belongs to the earth. His mind is a blank void; no voices, no instincts reach him, not even when the Guardian fires its beam towards him. 

His body is thrown back into motion when the energy from the beam’s blast strikes the ground. His head strikes the rocky ground, hard enough that his teeth rattle as the pain blooms from his temple. There's noise surrounding him, but he can't make sense of it, not when his head is throbbing. He struggles to his feet as best he can, moving away from the flames and trying to shake some clarity back into his mind. 

There's a sensation beneath his hands, steady vibrations pulsing through the ground, and it’s about the only sensation he’s aware of. The buzz of chaos is a distant sound his ears cannot hear. The only thing he sees is the grass beneath him. The only thing he tastes is smoke on the air. 

The vibrations turn from steady to random. There’s a thump, and then hands pulling at his tunic. He’s aware of the muffled sound of shouting as he’s hauled to his feet and pushed forward. Almost automatically, he swings himself up onto the saddle in front of him, hands curling around the pommel. The press of another body lands behind him, and in an instant, he’s jerked forward. 

The rush of air clears his head; he feels the tough leather of the pommel digging into his hands, so he looks down. There’s a pair of reins in his hand, singed at one end where the metal bit should be. Link turns to survey the landscape in confusion. Flames lick across the grass. The hulking mass of a Guardian twitches across the grass, its metal body jerking in small movements. Nearby, the flames burn especially bright over a mass sprawled across the ground; Link squeezes the reins as realization dawns over him. 

He’s on Rosie. Sheik is behind him. Link can feel something sticky over his skin, something painful throbbing over his knuckles. He feels sick to his stomach, Rosie’s frantic pace not helping his nausea. Stone ruins grow rapidly closer as the heat of the flames grows distant, as adrenaline begins to fade and pain takes its place. Reality is a cruel beast, but no crueler than the machines under Ganon’s curse.

Rosie comes to a stop with a panicked whinny. Link slumps off her back as soon as she stops, tearing the hood off his head. His knees hit the rocky ground, his body crumpling in the same way his thoughts fall to pieces, the weight of responsibility fracturing every shred of stability he found on his journey to this point. Hot tears well in his eyes as he fights with his twisting stomach, the sight of his horse’s burning corpse seared into his vision, even with his eyes closed tight against the tears. 

Sheik is a vague presence behind him, a fleeting touch on Link’s shoulders, one that he ignores as he sobs into the damp earth.

“I didn’t want this,” Link cries. It’s a raw statement, something he’s grappled with ever since the burden became his to bear, but one he’s never voiced aloud. Sheik murmurs something against his back, where his warm weight is pressed, but whether it’s a curse, a prayer, or something else, Link couldn’t say. His grief drowns all clarity of thought in his mind, wearing him down to baser instincts, the smell of earth, the sour taste of tears.

Sheik’s warmth departs, and Link is left to shed his grief alone. For that, he is grateful; he doesn’t need soothing words or reason at the moment, not when his heart is so wounded. A touch comes later, when Link’s cries have whittled down to shuddering breaths. Sheik tugs at the straps of Link’s weapons gently, but insistently, until Link sits up and wipes dirt and tears off his cheeks.

“I let Rosie go,” Sheik says quietly. A new wave of emotion sweeps over Link, but he holds it back. “The Castle isn’t much farther, and it will be easier by foot. I wanted to give her a chance…”

Sheik’s hand rests on Link’s shoulder. His face betrays nothing, but at mention of releasing Rosie, his hand curls into the fabric of Link’s tunic. He clears his throat briefly.

“Darkness will fall soon,” Sheik says in an abrupt change of subject. Link expects something to follow, a nudge, or an insistent word, but Sheik merely rises and attends to a pile of their things. Link sees Rosie’s saddle and reins now, amongst their packs. He looks down at the remnants of reins in his own hand, running his thumb over one of the burned ends. Link sets the reins aside gently and arises to his shaky feet. Rosie’s saddle and reins go near the burned reins of his horse, tucked carefully under a bit of rock. They aren’t hidden from view, but at least they have a resting place. 

Link peers out over the expanse of the field. They’re close to the ruins of Hyrule Town; the ground is sprinkled with ruins, spiky bits of stone and wood sitting like jagged teeth across the landscape. Beyond the ruins lies the Castle, a looming monstrosity overseeing it all. What, at first, inspired a bolt of fear now stirs up a righteous defiance. Link stands tall before the castle, before the wickedness of Ganon swirling atop its spires, and he hates that evil. 


End file.
